Columbia, S.C. (Oct. 30, 2004) - The East Tennessee State women's tennis team continued action at the Southern Intercollegiate Tournament in Columbia, S.C. The three-day tournament is hosted by the University of South Carolina and fields players from 16 different schools.

In A2 singles sophomore Mariia Ilina (Kyiv, Ukraine) advance to the finals with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Novaes of Winthrop. Tomorrow she will take on South Caronlina's Ganzer.

In A1 singles Elena Volobueva (Barcelona, Spain) dropped two matches today. She lost her first match to Lucas of South Carolina 6-2, 6-2, and then fell to A. Lask of Murray State 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Junior Sylwia Ziolkowska (Warsaw, Poland) fell to Ward of Murray State 6-4, 6-4, but defeated Bair of Charleston Southern University 6-1, 6-2 in the consolation bracket.

In the B2 singles, Sandie Knight (Adamstown, Australia) advanced to the consolation bracket finals with a 6-4, 6-3 win over R. Lask of Murray State. She will face Baird of Furman tomorrow.

Senior Gemma Halim (Jakarta, Indonesia) represented ETSU in the C1 singles bracket. She fell in a consolation match to Priest of East Carolina University 6-1, 6-0.

In C2 singles Muriel Sherwood (Atlanta, Ga.) fell in her first match of the day 6-1, 6-2 to George of South Carolina, but won her consolation match 6-1, 6-0. Junior Jewel Aldea (Charleston, S.C.), who played in the same bracket, won her consolation match against Wilson from the College of Charleston 6-1, 6-4, but then dropped to Stricklad of Georgia State 6-1, 2-6, 6-3.

In doubles action, which began today, ETSU's Ziolkowska and Ilina paired in the A1 draw. They fell to Furman's Bently and Eckert in the first round 8-3, but defeated Borisev and Brito of South Carolina State 7-6 (ret.) in the consolation round to advance to the consolation finals.

Knight and Volobueva played in the B1 draw and won their first match 8-6 against College of Charleston's Albertz and Roberts, and then advanced to finals after a 9-7 win against Osborne and Moore.

In the C1 draw, Halim and Aldea paired for ETSU. In the first round, they won 8-3 over Rowan and Wilson of College of Charleston, but then fell 8-2 to Shelly and Hartness of Wofford.

Competition concludes for both singles and doubles with the final day of the Southern Intercollegiate Tournament on Sunday. The first matches of the day are set to begin at 8:30 a.m.